TITLE X
Concerning Executive Power

FIRST SECTION
Concerning the Exercise of the Executive Power

ART. 138. The President of the Republic is the chief of the State and represents the Nation. The executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic with the Council of Ministers, in accordance with what is established by this Constitution.

The President of the Republic acts with directive power and as moderator of nations solidarity.

SECOND SECTION
The President of the Republic, His Powers and Duties

ART. 139. To be President of the Republic it is necessary:

1st. To be Cuban by birth, but if this status results from the provision in Clause (d) [i.e., 4th Clause] of Article 12 of this Constitution, it shall be necessary to have served with the armed forces of Cuba in the Wars of Independence for at least ten years.

2nd. To have reached thirty-five years of age.

3rd. To be in full enjoyment of civil and political rights.

4th. Not to have belonged to the armed forces of the Republic in active service during the year immediately preceding the date of designation as presidential candidate.

ART. 140. The President of the Republic shall be elected by universal, equal, direct, and secret suffrage, in a single day, for a term of four years, in conformity with the procedure that the law may establish.

The computing of the vote shall be made by Provinces. The number of provincial votes equal to the total of Senators and Representatives, who, in conformity with the law, have the function of choosing the electoral college of the respective Province, shall be counted in favor of the candidate who obtains the greatest number of votes in each of the Provinces, and the candidate shall be considered elected who receives the greatest number of provincial votes accumulated throughout the Republic.

A person who has once held the office may not discharge it again for eight years after having left office.

ART. 141. The President of the Republic shall swear or affirm before the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, on taking possession of his office, faithfully to discharge his duties, complying with and enforcing the Constitution and the laws.

ART. 142. It is the function of the President of the Republic, assisted by the Council of Ministers:

1st. To sanction and promulgate the laws, to execute them and enforce their execution; to enact, when the Congress does not do so, the regulations for the best execution of said laws; to issue decrees and orders which, for this purpose, and as far as is incumbent upon the Government and the administration of the State, may be proper, without in any case contravening what is established in the lasers.

2nd. To call the Congress or the Senate alone into extraordinary session, in the cases stipulates! by this Constitution, or when it may be necessary.

3rd. To suspend sessions of the Congress when agreement to that effect may not have been reached between the co legislative bodies.

4th. To present to the Congress at the beginning of each legislative session, and provided that it may be opportune, a message concerning the acts of administration covering the general state of the Republic, and to recommend or initiate the adoption of laws and resolutions that he may consider necessary or useful.

5th. To present the annual budget bill to the Chamber of Representatives, sixty days before the date on which it must go into effect.

6th. To communicate to the Congress whatever information the latter may require, directly, or by means of interpellations of the Government, upon all classes of matters in which secrecy is not required.

7th. To direct diplomatic negotiations and to negotiate treaties faith other Nations, with the obligation of submitting such treaties to the approval of the Senate, without which requisite they shall not be valid and shall not obligate the Republic.

8th. To appoint, with the approval of the Senate, the president, presidents of the chamber, and Magistrates of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, in the form that this Constitution provides, as well as the chiefs of diplomatic missions.

9th. To appoint the appropriate officials for the discharge of any other offices instituted by law in case their designation is not attributed to other authorities.

10th. To suspend the exercise of the rights enumerated in Article 41 of this Constitution, in the cases and in the form established by the same.

11th. To grant pardons in accordance with what the Constitution and the laws may prescribe, except in matters of crimes of electoral fraud. In order to pardon officials and public employees penalized for crimes committed in the exercise of their functions, it shall be necessary that the latter shall have completed at least a third part of the penalty that the tribunals have imposed upon them.

12th. To receive the diplomatic representatives ant! admit the consular agents of other Nations.

13th. To dispose of the armed forces of the Republic, as supreme chief of the same.

14th. To provide for the defense of the national territory and the preservation of internal order, giving account to the Congress. In case of danger of invasion, or in case a rebellion seriously menaces public security, and the Congress is not in session, the President may convoke it without delay in order that the necessary action may be taken.

15th. To comply with and enforce whatever rules, orders, and provisions the superior electoral tribunal may agree upon and enact.

16th. To appoint and freely remove the Ministers of Government, giving account to the Congress; to replace them on such occasions as may develop in accordance with this Constitution, and, as the case may be, to support the decisions of the Council.

17th. To exercise the other powers that the Constitution and the law may expressly confer.

ART. 143. All decrees, orders, and decisions of the President of the Republic must be countersigned by the corresponding Minister, without which requisite they shall lack obligatory force. This endorsement shall not be necessary in the case of appointment of Ministers of Government.

ART. 144. The President may not leave the territory of the Republic with out the authorization of the Congress.

ART. 145. The President shall be responsible before the plenum of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice for crimes of common character that he may commit during the exercise of his once, but he may not be prosecuted except with the prior authorization of the Senate, given by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of its members. In this case the Tribunal shall decide whether of not to suspend him from his functions until sentence is pronounced.

ART. 146. The President shall receive from the State a salary that may be altered at any time; but this change shall not have effect until the presidential term following that in which such change may have been granted.